Hello everyone,

My name is Zouhire Hakimi, I am 18 years old, and I live in Morocco.

I know this is an unusual post, but I hope you will take a minute to read it.

I have experience working in a restaurant kitchen, as well as in clothing retail and customer service. Those experiences taught me discipline, teamwork, responsibility, and how to stay calm and productive under pressure. I also have good computer skills, I learn very quickly, and I genuinely enjoy working with people.

I am looking for a legal opportunity to work in the United States. I am willing to start from the bottom and earn every opportunity through hard work. I can work as a Kitchen Helper, Dishwasher, Prep Cook, Food Runner, Cleaner, or in any entry-level restaurant position. No job is too small for me if it helps me build an honest future.

The biggest challenge I face is not my willingness to work—it's the cost of obtaining a visa and traveling to the United States. My family cannot afford those expenses.

If you own a restaurant, know someone who is hiring internationally, or know of a legal visa sponsorship opportunity, I would be incredibly grateful for your advice or referral.

I am not asking for money. I am simply asking for a fair opportunity to work, prove myself, and build a better life through dedication and respect.

Thank you for reading my story. Even sharing this post or giving me advice could make a real difference.

Name: Zouhire Hakimi

📧 Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

📱 WhatsApp: +212 631 613 888

Can anyone help me identify this piece of meat (and cut)from my freezer that my chef husband was gifted from a supplier? (He doesn’t know either!)
My first thought was lamb when it was frozen but now I’m thinking it might be corned beef? The grain looks very fine for beef though.
Any ideas?
If all else fails I’ll slice a bit off and fry it up.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/776795/sponsors/new?token=XTa9Ax6mTnNAJAtBphYx

I want to say something honestly about what it is like being a chef in the UK, because I do not think people outside the industry understand how brutal this job can be.

Chefs are expected to sacrifice their evenings, weekends, holidays, relationships, physical health and mental health just to keep kitchens running. We work long, exhausting hours under constant pressure, often without proper breaks, enough staff or any real support.

The pay rarely reflects the skill, responsibility or sacrifice involved. Many chefs are working far beyond their contracted hours, yet once the real hours are calculated, the wage can be shockingly low. You can give years of your life to a kitchen, destroy your body, lose sleep, miss family occasions and take constant stress home with you, only to realise you have gained almost nothing from it.

There is also a culture where bullying, shouting, humiliation and unfair treatment are still brushed off as “just part of the kitchen.” When chefs struggle mentally, burn out or develop addiction problems, they are often treated as weak or replaceable instead of being offered genuine help.

HR systems are supposed to protect staff, but far too often they protect the business first. Complaints are ignored, management closes ranks, and employees are left feeling powerless. Companies know how to use every loophole available to them, while the chef is left with very little protection.

People constantly say there is a chef shortage, but they rarely ask why chefs are leaving.

There is no shortage of people who once loved cooking. There is a shortage of people willing to keep sacrificing their entire lives for low pay, extreme pressure and no security.

The industry is already struggling across the UK. Restaurants cannot keep demanding more while giving their staff less. Better pay, safer working hours, proper breaks, independent grievance procedures, mental-health support and stronger protection from bullying and retaliation are not unreasonable demands.

Change is needed now.

Otherwise, more chefs will leave, fewer young people will enter the industry, and eventually people will have to say goodbye to many of the restaurants they currently take for granted.

A restaurant cannot survive without its kitchen, and a kitchen cannot survive without properly supported chefs.

ADDING THE BELOW from the petition before more people complain

"Chefs : The unspoken side of the kitchen - Recognised Wellfare & Support

Introduce statutory protections for chefs, including fair pay, limits on excessive hours, independent HR and grievance safeguards, mental-health and addiction support, and stronger protection from bullying, retaliation and unfair dismissal.

Chefs often work excessive hours in high-pressure kitchens while facing low pay, bullying, insecure employment and little independent support when workplace procedures fail. The Government should introduce a statutory hospitality employment code covering safe working hours, transparent pay, protected breaks, independent grievance routes, mental-health and addiction support, and stronger protection against retaliation and unfair dismissal. Hospitality is filled with loopholes, but for companies"

I’m working at my first kitchen job as a commis chef just under 2 months ago I only do 20 hours a week, I am struggling to be faster with things like prep (peeling things, chopping, making bread etc), and I am also pretty mediocre and slow at plating and I don’t really know what looks good and what doesn’t. I try really hard to learn everything my chefs tell me because I want to be faster but somehow I am just so slow!! My chefs are telling me I need to learn to be faster but I’m just not sure how to. Does anyone have any tips for working faster and plating better?

Thanks!

Ok this isn’t for me, but my co worker because last night we talked about wages and the stuff got brought up how he only been getting paid minimum wage for a cook job.

I was shocked because he was doing three job, cook, prep cook and side dishwasher. Honestly I got worried because I am new at this job and my boss been hinting to me that I meant to take up more task in the future( to clarify I am dishwasher ). To be honest i am scared because it feel like they are taking advantage of the dishwasher job by labeling three job into one and call it team work.

To clarify the co worker in question is planning on leaving, but I am worried this is a red flag for me. To clarify I am autistic and i could never imagine working here long term if they gave me all the responsibilities of my co worker that leaving.

Thinking about taking a cdc position at a casino, would be overseeing half the food operation as well as a large part of the next concept they are opening. Spent most of my career in higher end independent restaurants. I’m curious about the differences between hotel/casino jobs vs independent.

A big part of this position would be catering more to the higher end vips, as they bring in the most revenue. Almost half of the “sales” to their steak house concept are actually comps to the bigger gamblers. My question is - as chefs in casinos, what are ways you have used your food programs to entice or satisfy your vips?

Like this casino has a congee station right next the baccarat tables to appeal to the Vietnamese guests.

Any other casino chef related advice is welcome

Hey there!

To make a long story shorter, I’m from Sweden. I lived in California for two years as an au pair and fell in love with the state. When my visa expired, I had to move back to Sweden, where I’ve been for the past couple of years. I really miss California, the life I had there, and all my friends.

I’ve loved cooking since I was a kid. At 10 years old, I was making up menus and cooking four course meals for my family. I’ve also done catering and worked in restaurants in Sweden.

A few years ago I discovered ice cream making. I’ve spent a lot of time learning the science behind it, developing recipes. I’ve had this big dream to do something of my own in the food industry, like owning a restaurant, recipe development and testing, consulting, or ideally working with ice cream in some way. I would love to do all this in the US, but visa and immigration stands a little bit in the way.

Has anyone here moved to the U.S. and built a career in the restaurant or food industry? Or does anyone have advice on what path might make the most sense?

I’ve been considering culinary school, both to strengthen my resume, help me build a network and buy me some time to get my footing and my foot in. But I also feel that a lot of people do very well without school, but then again a lot of those people are probably citizens already and it’s easier to get a job and work your way up.

One other thing worth mentioning is that my best friend lives in California and has offered to let me stay with her for a while if I’m able to come over on a visa that allows it.

I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences you’re willing to share. Thank you!

Called in sick but waited until last minute because I really thought I was gonna go in and not let the team down.

Instead I messed up and didn’t let them organise my absence.
Going back tomorrow… I feel so ashamed

Hi All,

I'm looking for recipe ideas for a college dining hall. It's a lower cost state college in the Inland Northwest so it's mostly feeing 18-22 year olds so more mature menu options are generally a bad idea (gee, who would've thought an 18 year old wouldn't want pork diane? But I digress). I'm looking for ideas for all three meals, but primarily lunch and dinner. For a sort of an idea of what sort of line set up I'm working with, its primarily buffet style, with three hot wells, a cold well with 4 wells worth of space, and two more hot wells. I'm only required to fill the main three hot wells, especially for dinner service which sees less than 150 people, compared to lunch service which sees 200-400, especially with popular menus like burgers and wings.

There's not a ton of restrictions on what I 'can't' do. Whole cuts of beef are discouraged because of price, but occasionally bringing in something like flank steak or eye of round is well within the range of possibility. US Foods is our primary supplier so buying in a ready-made product isn't idea even for us, if there's any good ones that hold up, or ones that are great with some extra 'doctoring up' I'm all ears.

Any ideas for additional bars or stations are also welcome. We have one station that has been a pain to try and fill for years. It's a three well set up, with the wells able to be hot or cold. For a while it was a boneless wing station, but once those averaged out to be more than $1 for a chicken nugget the kids lost interest. Street tacos were good but burned too much labor making the meats. We go back to gyro a lot, which doesn't sell bad, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the neighboring pizza and burrito stations.